What our customers are saying

Real customers giving their honest opinions.

"I shot the new bow this morning and it was beyond expectations. So light, fast, responsive, and just plain fun. I didn't know much about primitive archery before, but I am already a convert.

Thanks again for a great product and your craftsman skills. I will be back."

Ron Sanders MD (ret)

"Thank you, Dave, on my behalf and that of the archery community!

I've owned many high-end bows and none have shot better than your Horse Bow. As a matter of fact , most haven't shot nearly as well, including laminated longbows I produced commercially many years ago ! There is NO hand shock and string noise level doesn't require silencers and I can't honestly say that about ANY other bow I've ever shot. The physical weight is unbelievably low.

At my short draw length of 24 1/2 - 25 inches, a 480 grain arrow MOVES !!! My point - on is 22 yds and 30 yds is just a bit more than an arrow diameter high. That's all I need for hunting and stump shooting.

My health is challenged significantly... body-wide cancer...so I must be choosy about how I spend my time. Dave's bow is what I'll use exclusively for my remaining time and it will accompany me Viking - style on the Final Journey.

Do yourself a favor..try this bow."

Larry Ross"Just wanted to let you know how pleased I am with my horse bow. I must admit I was skeptical of your claims, but it didn’t take many shots for me to be convinced that you are on to something special with your bamboo bows. After playing making bows for 20+ years, I can make a pretty good straight limbed osage self bow, but what I can’t do is make one shorter than 5 feet that I can shoot accurately (with a 30" draw length). I can’t explain why, but for some reason I’m just about as accurate with your 50 inch horse bow as I am with my 5 1/2 foot osage bow. Maybe it’s just mental but it’s none the less real. One of my favorite times of the year is spring turkey season. Bowhunting turkeys with my osage bows has meant waiting in a blind since it’s difficult to hide sitting on the ground and still be able to shoot a 5 1/2 foot bow. Your 50 inch bow has freed me from the blind and allowed me to be much more flexible. It’s always easier calling turkeys from some place they already want to go and with a short bow that I can shoot sitting with my butt on the ground, I’m able to quickly move as necessary. This fall I’ll hunt deer and hogs with the horse bow. I expect to hunt a lot more from the ground and not be limited to locations with climbable trees. Without the requirement of carrying a tree stand, I’ll be able to range much further and access areas that were previously unreachable. Thanks."

Michael Condict

"Picked up the bow today, it looks beautiful! I am greatly impressed with your workmanship, and also all that goes into all of the information and care in the longevity of these bows long after they leave your control. A light and deadly little bow, smooth draw with no stack, snappy release and drives those arrows deep into a round bale of hay. Thank you for your excellent work!"

Benjamin Larkin

"I just wanted to give a huge thanks to Dave Mead for the incredible target bow I bought. It's quick as a whip and so much more fun than my 50# hickory longbow. The quick shipment before me moved to my new duty station was greatly appreciated."

John Halverson

"I had an unexpected gift of a free afternoon, so I unpacked and attacked the kit Dav-o sent out. To say the finish work on the parts kit was lacking would be an understatement. But don't get me wrong, it is JUST cosmetics! (You want pretty, then pay a pretty price, this kit is a smoking steal!) I screwed around cleaning up tool marks and refining details until I finally HAD to start following the YouTube instructions. I photo/video documented the process and further used up time, and still was shooting the first arrows in just over 3 1/2 hours.

I chose to make it a solid bow and not a take-down and dithered around changing some of the mating surfaces between limb and riser. I did NOT modify the limbs, riser, angles, or any critical.design feature. I am a bowyer with 15 years experience and several hundred self-bows worth of experience. What I did were refinements and unless you have serious experience, just assemble what you get. David's kits, if they are like mine, will be fine AS IS. My 26 inch draw was just fine and she vomited arrows with some serious heat! Makes me wanna go find my chronograph and see just what speeds I am getting. No doubt this would push a single blade broadhead through the boiler room of any and all North American game. I would not hesitate to carry this for anything from squirrels to elk."

Scott Powers

"I recently built one of the DIY kits from Mead Longbows. This style of bow has interested me for a long time, but back when I was shooting often they were always expensive and I was more interested in learning to make bows. So when I saw Dave's DIY kit I knew I needed to make one. He does a great job with his video instructions, and it is a really unique bow. I love that he utilizes bamboo so well for the limbs, and having it be a folding takedown is nifty when packing for trips. The version I have is one of the original ones, which he has replaced with a newer geometry that is more efficient, as well as a longbow like version."

Steve Smith

"The bow kit was awesome and I plan on getting to a point where I'm able to make a bow from a stave. It shoots great!I'm thrilled with the bow. Thank you so much for the quality product and personal service."

"Thanks to Dave for all his help and support. I'm very happy with the end results.really enjoyed this project!"

Dave N.

"This thing is awesome! Also I have shown this bow and your handmade arrows to many people the response is awesome good stuff my friend!"

Cindy S.

"I live near Berea, Ky and every year I look forward to attending some of the Berea Learnshops. I am an elementary school visual arts teacher, and the Berea classes remind me of the thrill I want to give my students by creating something new, a great rejuvenating jolt right before I start a new school year. This year I spied a class on Turkish Horsebow making, and another on making primitive arrows- how cool! I could tie this into our phys. Ed. Unit on archery, and with our fifth grade social studies about Native America-you know, collaborating with other classes and strengthening learning, teacher brownie points! And.... let's face it, this looked like fun! I knew I was in good hands with Dave Mead from the moment I arrived. After 24 years of teaching you can't help but notice how classes are presented and organized to you, and he did a great job. Our first task after an introduction on bows and bow making was to get to work sanding the carefully shaped pieces in the end of the bows. He had correctly assessed the time limitations to give us the most steps in making that could fit in the class time allowed. He had prepared with well thought out 'kits' to assemble each bow, while still keeping the steps challenging and engaging. We started in on several hours of hard, careful work. He demonstrated and explained well, he helped patiently, he did not rush or allow any feelings of frustration or worry about going too slow to creep in, he kept us all engaged in a light patter that effortlessly returned to the the task at hand as needed. My teacher brain observed that, with all our differences in skill and ability to pay attention, it would have been easy for the 3 hour session to devolve into 'herding cats', but he kept us all on task pleasantly and easily, and we all successfully made really nice, very functional bows AND had time for some archery instruction, at which he is also a master. The next day I returned confident that I would have an equally pleasant, informative and successful session to make arrows, and I was not disappointed.Dave Mead teaches with careful, well thought out intention, maintains a very positive learning culture, and as you talk with him, you realize he has a great depth of knowledge in his subject, he has made different kinds of bows for years, he looked to history and local, inexpensive materials to synthesize a very functional, affordable replica of the legendary Turkish horse bows that can actually break down into smaller parts for transport! He actively competes and is a master archer, and teaches that skill as well. I would with great confidence recommend anyone, child or adult, who is interested in archery to learn both making and using bows from him. I intend to continue learning from him and to move into actual horseback archery over time."

High performance, unique primitive bow at an affordable price.The horse bows are very efficient, fast and comfortable to shoot. Stable, accurate, and smooth to draw.

Very compact with no stack, finger pinch, or hand shock. We have affordable options for everyone ranging from limbs, to DIY Kits, to ready to use